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Occupational Matrices

Introduction

IMPLAN offers a national Industry by Occupational Matrix based on Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data. This data is available in the form of an Excel spreadsheet file and shows the occupational composition of wage and salary employment by industry, as well as compensation for each occupation. When combined with IMPLAN wage and salary employment by industry and compensation by industry, the matrices will yield estimates of employment and compensation distributions across occupations.

Levels of occupation classifications and the occupations within each level of classification correspond to the BLS Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) codes (http://www.bls.gov/soc/). Levels include Major, Minor, Broad and Detail. Major is the most aggregated (23 categories), followed by Minor (96), Broad (461), and Detail (835).

Note that the military occupational codes used by IMPLAN do not correspond to military SOC codes. While the BLS does have military occupation codes, our source data for military employment by occupation does not come in that scheme and is only at the broader military occupation level (see tables 1 and 2 in the link below). Therefore, we created the more aggregated series of military occupation codes utilized in the matrices. For you as the user, it just means that the military occupation codes in the matrices will not match the BLS military SOC codes with which they may be familiar.https://www.bls.gov/ooh/military/military-careers.htm

Usage Instructions

For help using the Occupational Matrices, please follow the instructions below and reference this video tutorial if needed.

Extracting the Necessary Data from IMPLAN

1. Decide what by Sector Employment/Employee Compensation data you'd like to convert. You can choose from either a Region's Study Area Data or the Detailed Results of an Analysis.

2. Export the tables containing the chosen data.

Occupational Matrices for Employment Distribution

The employment values currently displayed in the IMPLAN application are the sum totals of Wage & Salary Employment and Proprietor Employment. However, we do have data on each type of employment and will provide the user with the ratios of wage and salary employment to total employment which can be used to isolate wage and salary employment values for use with the occupational suite data. The Occupational Matrices specifically provides the ability to convert Wage and Salary Employment into a breakout of Employment by occupation. Therefore, each industry's employment value must be limited to just wage and salary employment prior to utilizing the matrices.

1. Isolate wage and salary employment using provided ratios by multiplying each Sector's Employment by the respective Sector's Wage & Salary Employment coefficient, found in the "WSEmployment" column in the '2016EmploymentRatio...' file, by first finding the Region in which this Employment Data was pulled from (Regions are grouped alphabetically in two files Alabama-Missouri and Montana-Wyoming).

2. Copy the Wage & Salary Employment column to be pasted in a following step.

3. Open a copy of the 'OccupationalMatrices2016_Employment' Excel spreadsheet.

For each use, we recommend making a copy of the Occupational Matrices spreadsheet.

4. Paste the data generated from point 1 and copied in point 2 for all 536 Sectors into the 'Employment Impact' tab under the column heading starting in cell A2.

5. Review your results! The tabs ending in the word "Impacts" provide the actual Employment count estimate for each occupation. The numbers can be pulled from the tab of your desired level of detail to be included in your reporting. The tabs ending in the word "Ratios" won't change as a result of you pasting in your Employment numbers as these are the ratios being used to calculate your results in the "Impacts" tabs.

Occupational Matrices for Employee Compensation Distribution

1. Open a copy of the 'OccupationalMatrices2016_Compensation' Excel spreadsheet.

For each use, we recommend making a copy of the Occupational Matrices spreadsheet.

3. Copy and paste the exported Employee Compensation data for all 536 Sectors into the 'Compensation Impact' tab under the column heading starting in cell A2.

4. Review your results! The tabs ending in the word "Impacts" provide the actual Employee Compensation amount estimate for each occupation. The numbers can be pulled from the tab of your desired level of detail to be included in your reporting. The tabs ending in the word "Ratios" won't change as a result of you pasting in your Employee Compensation numbers as these are the ratios being used to calculate your results in the "Impacts" tabs.

Purchasing the Occupational Matrices

If you are interested in using the Occupational Matrices and have not yet purchased it or are interested in updating to the most recent version, you can do so here.